If you haven’t heard of The Sims by now then I don’t want to know
where you have been since February of 2000. That was when The Sims
was originally released. It went on to become the best selling PC game of
all time. The real life simulator proved to be such a success that it
spanned several expansions, and now an online-only title simply titled,
The Sims Online. So it would only be natural for the PC-craze to get a
console release. The developers at Maxis made sure to throw in some
console-exclusive goodies in addition to the free play mode that is
available on the PC version such as a objective based single player mode
dubbed, “Get a Life” and two player support in free play and special
mini-games. The PS2 version surprisingly ousted GTA: Vice City in the
sales chart as #1 selling console game, and now it is ready to tear it up on
X-Box.

First off it is worth noting that only two of the five PC expansion titles
for The Sims are included in the console release. All additional
items that appeared in the first two expansions (House Party and
Livin’ Large) are in here and in tact along with a host of other
console-exclusive items. However, the elements that debuted in the PC
expansions of Hot Date, Vacation, and Unleased are not
found in here. That means you cannot take your sim-girl/boyfriends out on
dates downtown, nor can you take the family out on a vacation, and most
regrettably you cannot adopt pets. I can live without the dates and
vacations, but adopting pets was one of most enjoying things to do in the PC
version. I can only hope this isn’t a marketing ploy by Electronic Arts so
that they make us waste another $50 on an “expansion” game which includes
all the elements from the three left out expansions.

Anyone who has played the PC versions of The Sims can assure you that
it’s easy to get the hang of gameplay in no time. First, you’ll want to move
your sim (or sim-family) into a pre-made house, or construct your own. The
second you get to control your family in the new homestead all there is to
do is simply point and cl-----err press (more on console controls in a bit)
the A button to have your sim do one of the functions available. Weather it
is to walk to a certain area, watch television, or to just take a dump, the
Sims can practically do anything you desire.

There are four main panels with attributes that heavily affect your sim. The
panels are for the sim’s personality, career, relationship, and motives.
Each one plays an important role, and you’ll want to keep on eye on each
one. The main two to focus on are the career and motive panels. The career
panel has attributes in several categories which are vital towards your
career path. As you get promoted in your career path you’ll have to gain
attributes in specific areas to keep up with the workload and to be in good
shape in order to keep getting promoted. The motives panel is the main one
to keep your eye on. It has life-bars in eight categories which all
deplete/fill up at their own unique pace. These bars show you when your sim
needs to rest, eat, shower, and so on. If you don’t watch these meters
carefully, your sim might just pass out, or even starve to death!

A “buy” mode is the menu driven way of buying all the necessities for your
home such as beds, televisions, toilets, refrigerators, and whatnot. If
things are getting cramped up at home there is the “build” mode where you
can add extra rooms, doors, windows, and the like. Oddly enough, you cannot
add floors to your home, I have no idea why the developers leave us with
single story houses. Of course, all this stuff costs simoleans (the name of
the currency in The Sims), and you’ll have to find your sim a job to
meet their costs for food, bills, and all the goodies you get from the buy
and build modes.

So how did the formerly mouse driven control scheme adapt to the X-Box? It
didn’t turn out so bad after all. As a matter of fact I was surprised at how
well the developers at Edge of Reality came up with such a robust control
scheme to perfectly match your average controller. The four panels mentioned
above are accessed by holding one of the four directions on the digital pad.
The control stick is the cursor, and A button is used to do all the
activating, while B is used for canceling actions. The actual movements of
the sims is a bit on the slow side, so make sure to hold down the R trigger
to fast forward the gameplay speed.

In all the past PC versions of The Sims there was no storyline
involved whatsoever. It was a straight up life simulator with you living out
your life the way you want it, complete with choosing your own career path,
decorating your home to your own desire, and perfecting your lifestyle. That
free play mode from the original is still here, but so is a brand new,
console exclusive mode where it revolves around actual objective based
levels, and contains an actual ending. As noted above, this mode is called
“Get a Life,” and it starts off with you living with your mother. She is fed
up with you milking your life at home at her expense. There are several
goals to meet here such as obtaining a job, and saving up 800 bones. Every
time you meet a goal you unlock an item for to get in “buy” mode. You’ll
move onto several more levels after you move out of your mom’s, from leasing
a place from a friend, to moving in with a buddy.

The Sims heavily revolves around the “Get a Life” mode. Actually,
it’s the only mode available to play from the first to time you load up this
game. After beating the first level in Get a Life mode is when you unlock
the endless mode. The free play mode is fantastic and you can practically
play forever anyway you want. Want to live as a bachelor? Go for it, or be
the family man by starting off with multiple Sims to control. Controlling
all of them simultaneously can be quite troublesome, that’s where the brand
new two-player mode comes in handy. A unique diagonal view splits up the
screen, and it worked very well to my surprise.

The graphics got a bit of a upgrade for the console release, which is quite
odd considering most PC ports usually downgrade their visuals so the game
can run at peak performance on the console. But when you’re dealing with a
graphically inferior game such as The Sims the above scenario is not
an issue. You see, the PC version used simple sprites for character models,
while the console version uses actual 3D models for their characters. This
results in much more diverse character creation. The actual building designs
still stay the same, and they do suffer from a bit of noticeable jagginess,
which is a shame the developers didn’t touch up from the PS2 port.

The animations for all the character actions are shockingly realistic, but
The Sims maintains a “PG-13” theme in mind with curtains going over
sims when they change clothes and pixilated blocks covering up their
privates in the bathroom, and when they engage in sexual intercourse. The
frame rate stays steady and smooth throughout all the single player gameplay,
but in multi player there are random moments of slowdown which lasts for
several moments. I appreciate the boosted character models, but also
wouldn’t have minded if the developers took an extra couple of months of
development time to touch up the flaws while porting over the PS2 version.

A trademark in The Sims is their gibberish language they use to
communicate with each other. It is here in all its glory in the console
release. One would think that their random whacko talk would grow on your
nerves in no time, but I actually found it be quite humorous and got use to
it in no time. The sound effects get the job done just fine, and everything
sounds the way you expect it too. One of my favorite things to do in the PC
version was uploading my own MP3’s into the radio stations you can listen to
during gameplay by using a stereo system. I was hoping the developers
would’ve used the X-Box’s custom soundtrack function to make this possible
in the console release, but it ended up as another X-Box feature not
utilized. The actual tunes used for the radio stations are decent as is, and
yes, they also make good use of the gibberish language spoken by the sims.

The seven levels that make up the Get a Life mode take approximately an hour
each to complete. It’ll be worth completing a couple of times to make sure
you unlock all the items and two-player mini-games. The mini-games I could
do without however, they simply place you and a buddy in a random location
competing against each other to see who can make the most friends, grill the
most burgers, or some other lame goal. They may be fun for the first time or
two, but they grow mundane fast. The free play mode is where you’ll spend
the most time after completing Get a Life mode. It is even more fun with a
friend in two-player. My buddy and I have clocked in about 25 hours alone in
that mode.

RATINGS

Graphics: 7.4
Sound: 7.9
Gameplay: 9.3
Replay Value: 9.0

Overall: 8.4

The Sims on the X-Box is just as much fun as it was on the PC. The
added Get a Life mode and two-player support are much welcomed additions and
gives people everywhere a reason to get the console version. It is just too
bad the developers couldn’t of gave the X-Box version a little more
development time to get rid of those bad graphical flaws from the PS2 port,
and utilize some of those great X-Box specific features such as custom
soundtracks, and X-Box Live downloads. Regardless of that, The Sims
is still one of best simulation titles out there and is a recommended
addition to your gaming library.